I know you’re tired of the Ashwin Willemse / SuperSport story, and it really has spiralled, but spare a thought for the brands trying to get involved.

As in, imagine all the creatives and marketing ‘mavericks’ thinking about how they can add their brands’ voices to the mix?

This is ‘proceed with extreme caution’ territory, but that didn’t stop Castle Lager from launching a new campaign aimed at shedding labels.

Or #SmashTheLabel, according to the hashtag.

You can find the tweet that started it all here, but we’ve also taken a screenshot:

The comments on that tweet show that this one doesn’t seem to sit well with many.

Let’s screenshot a few of those, then:

AND…

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Even (a fake) Jacob Zuma waded in:

We should mention that there are a few peeps praising the initiative, but in general it doesn’t look to be a great success.

SA journo Stephen Grootes asked his followers what they thought with this tweet, and that also didn’t end well for Castle Lager.

This response was funny, although not entirely accurate:

Castle Lager followed up their #SmashTheLabel tweet with this:

In our on-going quest to bring South Africans closer together, this video shows why Castle Lager is the proud sponsor of our national teams.
Despite our differences, we are united in our passion for sport, and our diversity is in fact our greatest strength. pic.twitter.com/D2rHiju5rt

— Castle Lager SA (@CastleLagerSA) May 22, 2018

Vaughan Croeser, brand director of Castle Lager, spoke to Business Insider SA about the initiative:

[He said] that the label-free beer will be on sale at the rugby test match between South Africa and England on June 9th.  Castle does not plan to sell all beer without labels, as that would cause confusion, he added. “It will be done in a controlled way.”

This isn’t the first such campaign:

Castle’s announcement is similar to a Coke campaign two years ago, when it removed its logo from its cans in the Middle East to encourage people not to judge one another, says the South African marketing expert Andy Rice…

Rice believes brands should be “super cautious when using social media for social commentary”.

“The phrase ‘can of worms’ springs to mind.”

Now we’re not here to pick sides on this one, but gauging from the reaction under the tweets in question you would say this hasn’t sat well with many.

I guess people think it’s too soon, or they’re just not that into the whole idea to start with.

It’s a minefield out there, so do tread gently.

[source:businsidersa]